


The Moon Beams Back

by StockyardSyndrome



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Briefly Graphic Description of Transformation, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Non-Linear Narrative, Werewolf!Steven, werewolf!Ryan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-11-05 13:24:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17919635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StockyardSyndrome/pseuds/StockyardSyndrome
Summary: In a universe where werewolves are a known and accepted phenomenon, you would think Ryan would be able to tell people about his monthly transformations. You would also think his best friend would be more open to the possibility of other supernatural beings, like ghosts. But of course he can't be so lucky.





	1. Friendship Soothes a Savage Beast

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so, a few disclaimers.
> 
> 1) This is RPF. Obviously. Don't be weird about it. I respect that these are real, actual people with real, actual lives, and so should you. We all good with that? Great.
> 
> 2) I'm marking and leaving this work incomplete for now. I'll finish it when I finish it. Just warning you now, don't expect timely updates, because my life is nuts. Though honestly, comments and feedback go a very long way for motivating me to write more, and if it's been several months since my last update, feel free to leave a comment just reminding me that this fic exists, because if it's been that long I've probably forgotten about it.
> 
> 3) This is not gonna be one of those fanfics that teaches you something, because I don't know Jack about shit. I don't know how to treat wolfsbane poisoning. I don't know what activated charcoal actually does. I don't know how big wolves are, or how they act. This is just my dumb fiction; for the love of G-d, don't take any sort of practical advice from it, because that's not what this one is for.

Shane stared toward the large black wolf cowering in the corner of the room. It lowered its stance and growled, baring its teeth. Its eyes darted wildly over each person in the room, ostensibly looking for an easy escape point and finding none. The growling grew louder, and Shane couldn’t help his sharp inhale.

“Everyone just back away slowly,” he said, trying to keep a low, even tone. “Just keep going until you get to the back wall. We don’t want to crowd him.”

Shane watched his terrified coworkers do as he advised, but he didn’t move to join them. He stayed where he was, watching the terrified creature watch them until the last one was fully backed against the far wall and frozen there. Sensing that everyone was finally too far to pose an immediate threat, the wolf quickly began pulling at the wire tangled around his neck, torso, and legs, stealing frequent glances around the room to ensure that no one had moved.

Eventually, when the poor creature looked on the verge of giving up, Shane cautiously, quietly called out, “Ryan? You in there, bud?” For the first time that night, the wolf’s dark eyes locked with Shane’s big brown ones. His eyes squinted and his head tilted, as if confused, but at least he finally didn’t look afraid. Shane had no idea what the proper course of action was at the moment, but he knew he needed to get Ryan to let him come close enough to help him out of those wires before they cut off his circulation or strangled him. It was risky, but Shane hoped that if he just kept talking he could find a way to show Ryan he wasn’t a threat.

“It’s just me. Just Shane. Your friend. Uh. I’m not really sure what the best thing to do is, here, but, Uh, I’m not gonna hurt you, so, um. Don’t worry about that. But… yeah, actually, I’m just gonna… get down a little here,” he said, slowly lowering himself so that he was kneeling, keeping his hands at his sides but clearly visible, “because I feel like I’m kind of looming over you, which isn’t great for making you feel safe.” Sure enough, once Shane had changed his position, Ryan relaxed his stance a little and took a few small steps closer, careful when he moved not to tug the wires even tighter around himself. He circled a bit to Shane’s right, seeming to use his new angle to confirm that Shane wasn’t up to anything nefarious. 

“Okay, so that’s, so lower is good, okay, actually then I’m just gonna,” and Shane slowly, in the most controlled movement he could manage, lowered himself so that he was lying on his stomach on the gymnasium floor, with his head and the top of his chest propped up and his hands flat out in front of him to support himself. “I think I read somewhere that dogs see you as less of a threat and more of an equal if you get down on their level. And I’m pretty sure that’s kinda what you are right now, right? Like a really huge, really dangerous, really scary-looking dog.” Shane paused. “Wow, you’re probably gonna kill me for saying that when you’re human again. That is, assuming you’re not gonna retaliate for it now. Do you actually understand any English right now, anyway?” 

The wolf made no reply. Shane moved his eyes to the ground right in front of him, because trying to maintain eye contact with a wolf and hold an actual conversation was a lot more stressful than even he could withstand. 

“Right, okay. So I know you can’t understand me right now and you’re probably still scared to death, because you told us that you — wolf-you, I mean — has not exactly had a lot of positive experiences with people, but. Like. I really need you to come over here, because I need to get those wires off of you, and I don’t think you’re gonna be able to do it without thumbs. Or maybe you could, but you might end up hurting yourself in the process, which obviously is not-” He was interrupted in the beginnings of his tangent by a huffed breath much closer than he expected. He looked up to find Ryan only about five feet away on his two o’clock. The wolf had evidently been silently creeping towards him while he rambled. Wordlessly, he stretched out his right hand towards Ryan. 

Ryan approached his hand slowly, all the while keeping his eyes on the long length of Shane’s body stretched out on the floor. He took one cautious initial sniff at the offered hand, then bent his head even more to do a thorough examination of the scent. Shane scarcely breathed, let alone moved; he watched intently as Ryan’s cool nose pressed against his fingers, then the back of his hand, then pushed his hand over to give his palm the same treatment. When his nose finally reached Shane’s wrist, he looked up and once again locked eyes with Shane. 

If it was odd for Shane to see the wolf and know that mere hours ago it had been his very human friend Ryan, the look the wolf was giving him now made the effect ten times worse. The wolf had almost a twinkle in his eye, a look so human and familiar and distracting that Shane completely did not see it coming when, in one fluid motion, the enormous creature stepped over to Shane and pressed his nose into the top of Shane’s head, disturbing his unkempt hair. 

“Oh, okay, that’s.. that’s okay, that’s fine, you just do what you gotta do…” Shane babbled, caught off guard by the enthusiastic roughness with which Ryan nosed around his head, face, and neck. Finally, Ryan backed up a step to sit down, and Shane noticed his tail wagging furiously behind him. He hadn’t even known wolves wagged their tails like dogs did, but he guessed it probably meant the same thing. He decided to take it as a good sign.

“Okay, I’m gonna sit up now, nice and slow,” he said, slowly pushing himself back up into a kneeling position. Once he was up, Ryan was on him again, as though he had just been waiting for Shane to get back up to his level. In this position, Shane’s head was only slightly higher than Ryan’s, which was mildly terrifying. Ryan was bigger than any wolf had any right to be. He was bigger as a wolf than he was as a human, a fact Shane wondered if human-Ryan knew about. 

Shane’s brain completely shorted out when Ryan threw his front paws over Shane’s shoulders and began enthusiastically licking his face. He could feel Ryan’s body shifting back and forth as his tail continued to wag vigorously. The spell of shock was finally broken when Ryan let out a happy little whine. The sound spurred Shane to respond, “Yeah, yeah, me too, little guy, good to see you too. Now, can you get off me so I can see about these wires?” Ryan didn’t have much of a response for the verbal request, but when Shane reached up to push Ryan down a little so he could get at the wires more easily, Ryan went along without an objection. He did, however, continue to wiggle and move about in excitement and restlessness as Shane carefully untangled him. Finally, after several minutes, the wires finally came off and Ryan jumped up on him again for another round of licks, not even giving Shane time to set the wires aside. The force of the jump nearly knocked Shane backwards, and the hand holding the wires dropped to the ground in order to keep himself upright.

Ordinarily, Shane would’ve been rather disgusted to have a wolf literally licking into his mouth, but given that it was Ryan, he was remarkably okay with it. Which may have been indicative of a slightly larger issue, now that he thought about it. This was probably not the time to think about it.

After another several minutes, Ryan pulled back a little and started circling around Shane, sort of jumping on him from all sides, still periodically licking. “Okay, okay, geez, you’re heavy, quit jumping on me,” Shane said, about half a second before Ryan gently took the very tip of Shane’s left ear between his teeth and tugged softly. 

“Alright, that’s it, down boy,” he said, chuckling. He gently pushed Ryan off again and rose to his feet, and all the while Ryan kept jumping around him and gently nipping. “You’re not at all like you described yourself. Human-you, I mean, when he described wolf-you. Man, that’s confusing. He was so worried you’d freak out and hurt somebody, but-“ Ryan jumped up on his hind legs to lick Shane’s jaw again. “Oof. You’re kinda just proving my point here, buddy. You remind me of an oversized puppy right now, no offence. C’mon, now, get off, we aren’t all championship bodybuilders capable of supporting Herculean weights. You’re gonna knock me over.” Shane couldn’t help chuckling at Ryan’s only vaguely chastised expression as he slid back down to four paws again. 

A sound from far behind him caught both his and Ryan’s attention. He turned to see Zach poking his head through the door to the main hallway, TJ and Keith visible not far behind him. Distantly, he could see four other figures huddled further back. He hadn’t even noticed his coworkers sneaking out of the high gymnasium, but it had probably been a sound decision. At the first sight of them, Ryan dropped back several feet, tensing all over again and letting out a very threatening growl. The sudden shift in mood could’ve given a man whiplash. 

“Sorry! Sorry, just checking on you. You okay in there?” Zach whisper-shouted across the room. 

“Yeah, we’re okay. I guess he’s still pretty scared of you all, but I think he likes me.”

“Big surprise there,” deadpanned TJ. 

“Do you wanna try and come back out here, so we can close him in there?” asked Zach, ignoring the comment for the sake of everyone’s maintained sanity. 

Shane considered for a moment before he shook his head. “If we leave him alone, he’s just gonna try to get out again. I’d rather stay and keep an eye on him. Probably best if you all spend the rest of the night out there, though.”

“Okay. Are you okay with us closing this door? I don’t want to lock you in there alone with him, just in case, but…”

“No, that’s probably best. Don’t worry. He’s not gonna hurt me. And if something does go wrong, I can just call out to you guys.”

“Okay,” Zach agreed, though he still sounded unsure. “And hey, um… do me a favor and tell him I’m sorry again, okay?”

Ryan growled again before Shane could reply that Zach really shouldn’t blame himself. Zach’s eyes widened comically, and he shut the door in a hurry.


	2. The Work Before the Storm

It hadn’t exactly been a typical day of Buzzfeed filming. Ordinary, the Try Guys and the Unsolved crew wouldn’t be sharing a location like this, but this was a special circumstance. The Try Guys had been looking for a wide-open space to shoot a video about a new type of dance-exercise workout program, and Ryan had found a local fitness center that was said to be haunted by the ghosts of three women who’d been murdered in the locker rooms and one man who’d been shot in the alley behind the gym. It was relatively inexpensive to rent the whole place for a day, but given that the budgets of both shows were running dangerously low for their respective seasons, they’d decided to split the cost and film on the same day, much to Zach’s distress. 

“Haunted!? You’re telling me we’re going to go jazzercising in a freaking haunted gym and just act like there’s nothing wrong!? Are you serious? Who the hell thought this would be a good idea?”

“Relax, dude,” Ryan had soothed. “Even I don’t think we’re gonna get anything substantial in this place. These ghosts aren’t known to be super active; this is pretty much gonna be a filler episode for us. Besides, they’re mostly gonna be focused on the human tree demanding that they rip his nose off and shove it down the shower drain. You’ll be fine.”

They had originally planned to film on a Saturday, but the site representative had called last minute and asked to postpone their filming to Monday. Shane hadn’t quite understood the depth of Ryan’s distress at the news of the reschedule, but Ryan had eventually just sighed heavily and agreed. 

“What,” Shane has asked, “did you have other plans that night or something?” 

“Something like that,” Ryan had replied before shoving his headphones on and turning around in his usual signal for ‘give me some space’. 

There’d been jokes about their combined plan around the office. ‘The most ambitious crossover event of the century,’ Eileen from HR had jokingly called it, knowing that the two groups would undoubtedly be making cameos in each other’s video and the fans were about to go nuts. 

“Nah,” Keith had replied. “For that we’d need Worth It or Ladylike to come along, and I know the Ladies are already busy with Devin’s spiritual-development thing. But hey, Steven, you and Andrew wanna tag along? Maybe talk about three different workout experiences at three drastically different price points?”

Steven snorted. “And get ripped to shreds by one of Ryan and Shane’s demons? No thanks. Plus, Monday’s a full moon, so I’ll be in wolf form all night. Definitely don’t wanna catch that on camera for all the internet to see.”

“Isn’t there stuff that can stop the effects of the full moon? Like wolfsbane?” 

Steven’s face scrunched in disgust. “I mean, technically it does, but that stuff is so bad for you. It only works by making yourself so sick that you literally cannot transform. Keep in mind, it is actually a poison that kills most normal humans. Werewolves are just resistant to the toxicity, not immune.”

“Hm. I guess it’s just better to find other ways to deal with it, then.”

“Yeah. Besides, on born werewolves like me, it only has like a 75% chance of being effective. It’s only really reliable for bitten wolves, but even then it’s not 100% guarantee. Not that there’s that many bitten wolves left anymore; just the twenty or so that stay in government facilities.”

“Wait, if wolfsbane is a reliable way to prevent them from changing, then why are they locked away?” Shane asked, finally joining their conversation. 

“Because they’re still dangerous. I’m pretty sure the facilities do use wolfsbane to prevent them from changing on the full moon, since bitten wolves, unlike born wolves, just revert to pure instinct whenever they change and will just randomly attack people; but they also could literally change on accident at any given moment, and you can’t just keep them drugged up with wolfsbane all the time. That much exposure would definitely kill them.” 

Shane hadn’t been willing to continue that conversation. He’d seen firsthand how discussions with Steven about werewolf stuff could go off the rails in the worst way; he didn’t want to get himself involved in a repeat of the first and only time he’d seen Ryan and Steven fight so intensely that Steven actually growled. 

Now that he was sitting on a gymnasium floor in the late June night watching Ryan-the-wolf trying to calm down again after Zach’s interruption, some of the things Ryan had said during that argument started making a whole lot more sense. 

Filming with the Try Guys in Fogwell’s Gym and Fitness Center had gone pretty well at first. During the morning, Shane, Ryan, and the rest of the unsolved crew had joined in helping the Try Guys shoot their video. Actually, they were officially doubling as the Try Guys’ crew for that day only; they had all decided that it would be a little redundant to bring along two full crews of people for only two relatively short videos in one little gym. Ryan’s experience as a grip had come in handy, helping with the camera equipment and actually giving decent lighting advice.

At around eleven o’clock, Zach had asked if he could leave his hot Cheetos and full plastic water bottle in Ryan’s backpack. Ryan easily agreed, just pointing out to Zach that his own water bottle was already in the bottom of the bag, marked with his name in bold sharpie.  
“Just be careful not to mix them up,” Ryan had warned. 

Things had begun to go downhill when noon hit and all of the Gym’s employees went home, including the site rep. He had stopped in to leave his spare master key with TJ and inform the crew that they would be left without supervision for the night, but he would be back early the next morning to see them off, and they could always reach him at his personal cell phone number in case of emergency. 

Emergency had come later that evening in the form of a freak electrical storm and flash flooding that made it dangerous to trek across the parking lot to their cars, let alone drive home. Consequently, it was decided that the four Try Guys and entire Unsolved crew would be better off just staying the night at the gym until it passed. This had been about three o’clock. The bright side was that the storm made it dark enough that they could start filming early, and with all the extra Try Guys around to help, they could probably be done with enough time to actually get a decent night’s sleep. Or so Shane hoped. 

Sure enough, they were mostly done filming by seven o’clock, and the spooky atmosphere provided by the rain almost made up for the fact that Ryan’s prediction had been correct; they’d found absolutely nothing. Not even so much as a half-formed EVP or cold spot Ryan could overreact to. Shane would’ve worried about the quality of the episode if he weren’t pretty sure that one or more of the Try Guys had made it into at least forty percent of the shots. As it was, they could probably count on crossover excitement alone to carry the episode’s popularity, and the utter lack of even faux-ghostly activity would probably allow Ryan to sleep peacefully through the night. 

By seven-thirty, Ryan was visibly twitchy. He’d been seeming more and more anxious as the evening wore on. Shane, foolishly, had assumed that his friend was once again psyching himself out about the ghosts that clearly weren’t there, or maybe about the fact that there were a lot more people around than normal; Ryan was a people-pleaser, always concerned what others thought of him, and having so many people watching him work undoubtedly made him nervous that everyone was secretly judging him. 

About seven-forty-five was when things really went to shit, though none of them knew it. Ryan had gone to set up the cameras in the locker room where he and Shane would be spending the night. Zach, regretting his decision not to bring more in the way of snacks, finally took a break to eat his hot Cheetos. This also wound up being a decision he would regret immediately, as he reached right back into the bag and grabbed a plastic water bottle, chugging it in several large gulps. Because of the lingering spice on his tongue, he didn’t notice that the water had a strange taste to it. Even as he threw it away, he didn’t notice the sharpie that smeared from the bottle onto his hand. He then went to help the rest everyone else set up for a night spent sleeping (or trying to sleep) on the hard floor of the gymnasium, using jackets and sweatshirts as pillows. 

At eight o’clock, Ryan retrieved his backpack from where he’d left it with Zach and opened it. Zach and Shane both noticed his slowly increasing panic as he searched through it at least three full times before dumping all of the contents out on the floor to go through the items once more. 

“Missing something there, Ryan?” Zach asked. 

“My water bottle. Do you have any idea what might’ve happened to it?”

“Isn’t that it right there?” He gestured to the water bottle slowly rolling away from where Ryan had carelessly deposited it. 

“No, that’s yours. Mine had my name on it.” Ryan froze a moment and whipped his head to look at Zach in horror. “Oh my God; you didn’t drink it, did you?”

“Oh, shoot. Yeah, I guess I probably grabbed the wrong one. Sorry.”

Ryan went paler than Shane had ever seen on a person of his dark complexion. “Shit. Shit. Shit,” he muttered. 

“What’s wrong?” asked Shane. 

“Um, Ryan, you’re kinda freaking me out here,” said Zach. “Was there something in that water bottle I should know about?”

“Just… meds.”

“Meds? What kind of meds?”

“Uh, the strong kind. Shit. How long ago did you drink it?”

“Like, fifteen minutes ago, I think? What the fuck do you mean ‘the strong kind’?”

“Hang on.” Ryan turned back to the pile of stuff from his backpack and grabbed a green bottle, the kind that usually held over-the-counter vitamin supplements. He was already reading the directions on the back when he asked, “How much do you weigh?”

“About a hundred-thirty pounds. Ryan, man, what the fuck is going on? What the hell was in that water?” By this point, they had attracted the attention of all three remaining Try Guys. Devon and TJ were still setting up in the locker room; Mark was knitting in the corner with earbuds in, and would likely not be taking notice of anything less intrusive than a category five natural disaster, and possibly not even that. 

“Just meds. Don’t worry about it. Here, just take these.” He dumped five black tablets into Zach’s palm. “It’s activated charcoal. That much should completely counteract the amount that you drank.”

Zach hesitated for a moment before he downed them all with a swig from his own water bottle, retrieved from the pile on the floor. “Okay, that still doesn’t answer any of my questions. Can this stuff kill me? Am I gonna, like, hallucinate or something? Shit, if the office decides to do random drug tests, am I gonna have to come up with some bullshit excuse about-” 

“Hang on. One question at a time,” interrupted Ned. “What exactly happened?”

“I had my meds dissolved in a water bottle so I could easily take them at the right time without interrupting filming. Zach drank it by accident. I had some activated charcoal tablets, and I gave him enough to absorb the amount he took, so it should only have a pretty mild effect.”

“What kind of meds?”

Ryan bristled, and the look in his eye said he was about half a word away from trying to argue his way out of the conversation without telling them anything. Fight or flight was kicking in; this was a whole new kind of scared Shane had never seen from Ryan, though it had all the intensity of Ryan’s reaction to the Sallie house. 

“I don’t-” Ryan began. 

Shane interrupted. “Ryan?” he asked softly, unsure of how to help when it was so clear that his usual method of humor wouldn’t do the trick. “What’s going on? You’ve never mentioned taking meds before.”

Ryan just stared at him and shrugged helplessly. 

“Uh, should I call an ambulance?” asked Eugene. 

“I don’t think they’ll really be able to get here through the storm,” replied Keith. “Ned, does that activated charcoal stuff really work?”

“Depends on the type of drug. I won’t know until we know what exactly it was, and how much.”

Ryan took a long, slow, steadying breath, the kind Shane recognized as him trying to dispel the shakiness from his voice, and then he spoke. “Aconite. It had about half a milligram of aconite.”

“Aconite?” Ned repeated in confusion. “Isn’t that the poisonous part of wolfsbane?”

“Yeah. It’s wolfsbane,” Ryan confirmed. He took another deep breath. “So Zach’s gonna be fine, maybe just have a stomachache. But we’re about to have a much bigger problem.”

Shane was pretty sure it was painfully obvious by the looks on his and the other men’s faces when they finally figured out what Ryan was implying. 

“Wait, Ryan,” said Keith, “are you-?”

“Yeah,” Ryan said, cutting him off. “And it’s a full moon, and there’s only about half an hour until sunset.”

“Wait,” said Eugene, “Why is that such a big deal? Like, I get that you probably don’t want an audience around when you change, or even a whole bunch of people around when you’re stuck in wolf-form, but you could definitely go stay in the locker rooms or one of the weight rooms or someplace. You wouldn’t even have to see us all night.”

Ryan sighed heavily. “Someone go get Devon and Teej. I’m only gonna have time to explain this once.”


	3. A Very Rushed Explanation

Once Mark had been roused from his knitting, everyone gathered together in a loose circle in the center of the gymnasium. 

“So, Ryan’s a werewolf?” asked Devon. Ryan nodded in confirmation. “I feel like that kind of thing should have been in, like, your employee file or something. But HR confirmed this shoot on a full moon, meaning… they don’t know?”

“Right. And I really hate to have to say this, but… I really need you guys to keep this quiet. I can’t let anyone find out.”

“Why?” asked TJ. “What, your mom had an affair with a werewolf and you can’t tell anyone she cheated on your dad?”

“No! Mom would never do that, Jesus Christ,” Ryan exclaimed with a glare.

“Well, what is it then? Why on earth would you have to keep it a secret?”

“And also, how is it a secret in the first place?” added Mark. “I mean, I’m pretty sure werewolf genealogy is a matter of public record at this point. Wouldn’t someone eventually do a background check on you for work or something and be able to see that you come from a werewolf line?”

“No,” answered Ryan, “because I don’t come from any established family line.” He took yet another deep, steadying breath. “I was bitten as a teenager. Life for bitten wolves follows a completely different set of rules than for born wolves. There are entire government programs dedicated to keeping bitten wolves quiet and out of society.”

“Isn’t that for safety reasons?” asked Keith. “I mean, bitten wolves have been known to just randomly attack people, even when it isn’t a full moon. Uh, no offence.”

“Yeah,” agreed Zach. “If you can show that you aren’t dangerous, wouldn’t the police just let you go on with your life like every other werewolf?”

Ryan shook his head. “Look, it’s actually a lot more complicated than that. I promise to explain later, but right now we’re running out of time. We only have…” he checked his watch. “... twenty minutes till sunset, and we need to decide what we’re going to do about me once I change.”

“You’re not gonna, like, hunt us, are you?” asked Ned. 

“Not exactly. But wolf-me is absolutely terrified of humans. So there’s a really good chance that if I run across any of you, I might lash out. If that happens, I could hurt somebody very, very badly.”

“Can’t you just stay in the other part of the building?”

“We’ll have to barricade me in somehow. I’ll probably try to get out; I don’t exactly have a great history with being locked up. And if I can hear or smell you guys nearby, that’ll just make it ten times worse.”

“Wait a minute,” interrupted Zach. “Back up. Why would you be scared of us? And why would you try to get out, if you know you might accidentally hurt somebody if you do?”

Ryan paused a moment. “Um, hang on. I need to figure out how to explain this.” He hummed in thought. “Okay, so… when I change, I don’t keep any of my human memories. Basically all I have to go on is animal instinct and my memories from previous times I’ve changed. Which is really not great, because I’ve had a whole lot of really terrible experiences with humans.”

“What kind of terrible experiences?” Shane asked, his brow quirked in concern.

“Honestly, I really don’t have the time to explain all that, and even if I did, I don’t think I have the emotional energy for it right now. Let’s just say I basically just assume that every human wants to hurt me, and if anyone gets anywhere close to me I’ll feel cornered and probably wind up attacking.”

“Have you… attacked anyone before?” Zach asked nervously.

Ryan hesitated. “Yes, but only the people who actually did want to hurt me. That time, it was in legitimate self-defence. I still don’t like thinking about it, though.”

“So you do remember what happened as a wolf when you turn back, then?”

“Yeah. Once I change back to human, I remember everything. In detail.”

“Okay, so if you’re so scared of humans, why would you try to escape out of wherever we decide to lock you in for the night if there’s a bunch of us out here? At least in the other side of the building, you wouldn’t come into contact with any of us. Shouldn’t that make you feel safer?” Eugene asked. 

“Well, how would you like it, feeling trapped and caged in with a bunch of threatening presences right in the same building with you? I’ll probably assume you all captured me and are keeping me prisoner just so you can hurt me more easily.”

“Well, that’s a very pessimistic assumption,” said Shane.

“Like I said,” replied Ryan, “it would be based on some pretty terrible experience.”

“So, we should really just find a sturdy place to lock you in for the night and then stay out here in the gymnasium, as far away from you as possible, and try to keep quiet so you don’t hear us out here?” Ned asked.

“Yeah, that’s probably our best plan.”

“The men’s locker room is in the very opposite corner of the building,” offered TJ. “We could barricade you in there.”

“Plus it has a heavy, solid door that locks from the inside. So you can lock yourself in, but wolf-you won’t be able to undo the lock and get out,” suggested Devon.

“Did it have any windows or other doors I could potentially break out of?” Ryan asked.

“None that I saw.”

“Great. Sounds perfect. Let’s go.”

The group did a quick search of the locker room and found no points of entry or exit except the main door, which was indeed sturdy and able to be locked from the inside. Ryan did so, and everyone else barricaded the door from the outside with a heavy desk pulled from one of the administrative offices. They then left Ryan alone to endure the agony of transformation at sunset while they settled back in the main gymnasium and tried not to make too much noise. 

In their haste to get Ryan barricaded in, they had neglected to search the small storage area behind the last row of showers in the locker room. It held a heavy door of its own, albeit one blocked by several large stacks of coils of unused wire, which led to a service hallway that curled around the outside edge of the building and let out through a large set of doors into the gymnasium. 

At around three o’clock in the morning, Ryan the huge black wolf had found the door and, with a solid push down on its lever handle, swung it open into the hallway.


	4. The Soothed and Playful Beast

By the time Ryan calmed down again after Zach’s interruption, it was nearly four o’clock in the morning. Shane settled cross-legged on the floor to run his hand over Ryan’s thick, soft fur, and Ryan let out a happy, relaxed little sigh. For several minutes, the two sat in serene silence, Shane moving both of his hands to give Ryan some good solid petting, marvelling at his friend’s fascinating, beautiful new form. 

After a few minutes, Ryan wiggled with pent-up energy and rose to his feet again. He turned to meet Shane’s eyes again, and there it was. The look in his eye. The expression was just so Ryan, so familiar, that Shane was once again taken aback. He recognized this look; it was the one Ryan always wore when he’d just had a funny idea or thought of an especially clever joke that he wanted to share with Shane, like he just couldn’t wait to see how Shane would respond. 

Not a moment later, Ryan lunged forward to tug Shane’s oversized braided bracelet off of his wrist and hold it gently between his jaws. He then took several rapid steps away from Shane before turning back to see his reaction.

“Hey, what are you doing?” called Shane playfully. “That’s mine.” He rose to his feet again, and Ryan made several more quick strides in the other direction. “You little bandit!” Shane took one step forward, and Ryan skittered backward some more, his big doggy-smile spreading around the bracelet in his mouth. Shane was sure he had a matching grin on his own face. “Oh-ho, so it’s a game of keep-away, is it? Get over here, you rascal!” He made a playful lunge forward, and Ryan took off like a shot in a wide circle around the room. 

Neither of them noticed TJ silently ease the door open, take a quick look at the laughing Shane in hot pursuit of the wolf, and shoot a meaningful smile back over his shoulder to Devon before easing it shut again. 

Eventually, Shane did get a hand on Ryan, which transformed their game of chase into a game of wrestling. Shane dimly wondered if he should be a bit more careful around an animal so strong and dangerous, but Ryan was being relatively gentle. His low, playful growls were periodically interrupted by several adorable sneezes, making Shane wonder if he might be allergic to the cat fur on his flannel shirt like human-Ryan was or if the sneezes might have some other cause. 

The two eventually tired themselves out without a clear winner, and they broke away from each other to catch their breath. Shane dramatically flopped to the ground in exhaustion, taking off his jacket to ball up underneath his head as he curled up on his side. Ryan nudged his way under Shane’s extended arm, and the two lay cuddled together for quite some time, Ryan’s tail wagging lazily. Shane eventually drifted off to sleep with the sound of the wolf’s slow, even breathing and periodic relaxed sighs in his ear. 

A few minutes later, it was Devon’s turn to peek through the doors and send a knowing smile of her own back at TJ.


	5. The Morning Aftermath

Shane didn’t get to sleep long. It was nearly six o’clock according to Shane’s watch when Ryan jerked awake and started whining in distress. His bones and muscles began visibly shifting under his skin as his thick, shiny black fur started to retreat into his skin. The sight was horrific, and the noises Ryan was making sounded like pure agony. Knowing that Ryan wouldn’t want Shane to see him like this, and that there was little he could do to ease Ryan’s suffering anyway, Shane got up and walked out into the main hallway where he knew his friends would be, shutting the door behind him.  
He found them all curled up on chairs in the lobby in various states of alertness. Enlisting the help of the more awake members of their party, he moved the desk back into the proper office and used the spare key the site rep had left with TJ to open the locker room and retrieve the clothes Ryan had removed and left folded on the locker room bench the night before. 

When he got back to the gymnasium, Shane slipped back in alone to give Ryan his clothes and hopefully force him to take a few sips from the water bottle Zach had never actually finished the night before. He found Ryan, once again fully human, passed out naked in the middle of the floor. He was barely able to rouse him enough to slip pants and underwear back on before Ryan had to stop to rest. 

Mark pokes his head in and, seeing that Ryan was at least wearing pants if not a shirt or socks, motioned to the others that it was once again safe to enter. 

“No offence, man,” greeted Mark, “But you look awful.”

“Morning to you too, dude,” Ryan grumbled in reply. He turned back to Shane. “Do me a favor and hand me my shirt?”

“Sure thing,” said Shane, already shaking the wrinkles out of Ryan’s tee-shirt and handing it over so Ryan could slip it on. 

As Ryan continued to dress, he still needed to pause frequently, an he looked on the verge of passing out again. “The storm’s over, right?” He asked. 

“Yeah,” said Zach. “The lowest parts of the road are still a little flooded, but I think we can go around the other way and avoid most of it.”

“Okay. Could you guys get started on loading the equipment into the cars? I might take a while to get enough energy back to be on my feet again, let alone make it out to the parking lot.”

While the others packed their things into the car, Shane wrapped his arms around Ryan to help him stumble out to the car and deposited him in the passenger seat. “Wow. The full moon really takes a lot out of you, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Ryan answered, “no kidding. I’m probably just gonna pass out here and sleep the whole way home, if that’s okay.”

“Sure. Go ahead. Sleep well.”

Shane went back inside to help his coworkers load the last of the equipment into their cars. Then the eight of them stopped to linger in a loose circle, half of them leaning against the sides of their cars, as they waited on the site rep to return so they could give him his key and get on the road home. 

“I still don’t understand why he needs to keep this a secret,” said Zach, finally breaking the silence. 

“I don’t get it either,” Keith said. “Ryan’s not really anything like what bitten wolves are described to be like.”

“Look, I’m sure we’ve all got questions,” said Shane, “but he’s absolutely exhausted. For now, let’s just let him sleep, and we’ll keep it a secret and give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe we could meet up this weekend, and he can answer everyone’s questions then?”

The others had all just agreed to this plan when the site rep finally pulled into view. After returning the key, the four Try Guys piled into Keith’s car and drove off, leaving the Unsolved crew to do the same in Ryan’s car. Shane somehow found himself behind the wheel, probably because he was the least likely to fall asleep at the wheel; he was still pretty tired, but thoughts about Ryan, about what had happened last night, about what exactly must have happened to Ryan to leave him with such a profound distrust of people, about why wolf-Ryan had taken to him so easily regardless of that fear, would all have an easy enough time keeping him awake until they were all safely home. 

The five were nearly to Ryan’s apartment when Ryan stirred awake again. He looked out the window for several minutes before turning around to see the three in the backseat looking dead to the world. “Hey, Shane?” he finally began. “Thanks. That was pretty much the only good experience wolf-me has ever had with a person.”

“No problem. I’ve always been pretty good with dogs; glad to see that apparently extends to terrified wolves as well,” Shane replied with a teasing grin. “Not to mention that this proves I really can calm you down in any scenario.”

Ryan shook his head. “It’s not just that; I think I actually recognized you somehow.”

“What do you mean?”

“Honestly, I’m not entirely sure. It’s not like I actually remembered you, but when you called my name, I just got this feeling. It was kind of like, ‘oh yeah, this guy, I know this human, I like him, I can trust him.’ It was actually pretty nice.”

“Hm. Well, glad to have been of help,” Shane said, pulling up in front of Ryan’s apartment. “Need any help getting upstairs?”

“No, but I wouldn’t mind some help carrying my bag.”

“Will do. Oh, also, um, I feel like I should just tell you now… I mean, you kinda gotta expect that we all still have questions.”

“Of course you do,” Ryan sighed. “But maybe not today? I’m still pretty exhausted; the day after I change I usually spend like half a day sleeping.”

“No, yeah, not today, but maybe this weekend? I kinda thought maybe we could all just meet up then, get all the questions answered all at once so you don’t have to explain the same thing six different times.”

“Sure, Yeah, I can do this weekend. And hey, do me a favor? Tell these guys,” he said as he motioned to the three in the backseat, “that I’m really sorry I had to keep this a secret. And that goes for you, too. You know I would’ve told you if I could.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m sure your reasons are good, because I know you hate lying to people. Honestly, I’m kinda surprised you managed to keep this a secret. You’re normally so bad at it.”

Ryan huffed a laugh. “Shut up. Just come help me get upstairs.”

Of the three in the backseat, only one had actually been asleep that entire time. As Devon and TJ sat up to watch through the car window while Ryan and Shane hugged each other goodbye, they exchanged knowingly smug grins. 

“Those two are so cute,” she commented. 

“They need to get their act together already,” he complained. 

She shushed him. “They’ll get there eventually. Just give them some time.”


End file.
